Another in our posts on wearing two, this time we dial down the oestrogen and get a Dad’s perspective! For other posts on wearing two, see Ruby’s post on getting started with twins, Sarah’s post on wearing two with mei tais and SSCs and Steph’s post on wrapping two at once.
Consider this scenario: your wife had go away suddenly due to an emergency, leaving you home alone with your cranky toddler and even-crankier baby who’s due for a nap. You can:
(a) put them in a double pram (if you have one) and take them for a walk outside, hoping the fresh air will calm them down,
(b) try to put the baby to sleep and hope the toddler will calm himself down,
(c) try to carry both in your arms (good luck with that for more than a few seconds!), or
(d) wear the baby to sleep AND wear the toddler to calm him down.
Tandem babywearing is really not as hard as it looks. If you think of it as a form of exercise, it works those upper body muscles quite effectively. And of course you can actually do other stuff while wearing two, like play your favourite video game, go for a walk (be prepared for swarms of adoring women), or weed that garden like you’ve been promising the wife for months.
In addition to excellent front and back carry tips in Sarah’s previous tandem carry post, you can also wear your sleeping newborn/infant in a ring sling and your toddler in a structured hip carrier where most of your toddler’s weight rests on the waist band. I find this comfortable even for quite a long period (at least long enough for said cranky toddler to calm down).
Lastly, as Steph’s wrapping two post showed, a long woven wrap (or two) can also be used effectively to carry both your sleeping infant and your curious toddler. If you are using two wraps, make sure to tie the baby in one securely first before using the other wrap to tying your toddler on your back as you need to bend down while doing the latter. A quick back carry like rucksack is usually best for this purpose, but make sure you tuck enough fabric under your toddler’s bum to prevent the dreaded bum-popping.
I hope this gives some incentive for the babywearing dads out there to give tandem carry a try, either with your twins or your baby and toddler. Good luck and let us know how you go!
Are you a babywearing dad? Have you tried tandem carry before? Leave a comment and let us know your experience!
That bloke in the red t-shirt doing the weeding is sexy as!
Another reason to wear two at once: no more fights between the kids over who gets the carrier and who has to walk. Little do they know that I use these fights as reverse psychology so they don’t realise that being in the sling means they can’t escape when we’re walking near a busy road.